Mountain climbing

Internets, I'm going to be so exhausted tomorrow! The weather in Cape Town isn't very pretty today. It's cold, foggy, rainy and gray. Consequently, the cable car up Table Mountain isn't operating today.

Nonetheless, Charlotte York and I were insistent that we would hike up Table Mountain because today's the only day we had time to do this. Everyone advised us against this foolish mission. After all, there certainly would be no view from the top and the wind and rain would make for an unpleasant experience.

But we insisted that we would climb the mountain, so we hired a guide to take us up to the summit. Our guide was a very experienced hiker and mountain climber and he ascends Table Mountain several times each week. He explained to us that there are several hundred trails to take, each rated from A (easiest) to C+ (most difficult without being actual climbing).

After assessing our level of fitness, he decided to take us up a B-level trail, which we felt up to tackling. As we walked up, it was clear to me that I'm not in shape for sustained cardio workouts. I began huffing and puffing nearly immediately and I was nervous that I wouldn't be able to finish. But I kept my complaints to myself and we went onward.

For a portion of our climb, we were actually scaling vertical rocks. Our guide pointed out where footholds and handholds are and we managed to "scramble" the side of these giant boulders. To tell the truth, this was my favorite part of the climb because I got to use my upper body and it represented a break from the constant stepping up rocks.

We learned that Table Mountain is home to approximately 1,500 different types of plants, and we got to see the geology and plant life change as we climbed up the face of the mountain. Some of the plants were pretty interesting and native only to South Africa (or even native only to the mountain!).

After two hours of climbing, we reached the summimt, 1,086 meters up. Because of the dense fog, we could see only 10 feet in front of us. There were absolutely no views of Cape Town to take in and the strong winds were brutally cold.

We spent about 30 minutes eating our sandwiches and Clif Bars before beginning our descent. Because of the fog and the rain, the rocks were pretty slippery and I found myself on my ass several times. For me, it was much more difficult coming down the mountain than it was going up, thanks to unsteady legs and having to concentrate on each step.

It took us nearly two hours to return to the bottom, and when we were done, our clothes were soaked with rain and sweat. We even may have been the only people on the mountain today because we didn't see a single other person the entire time we were there and I'm really proud that we hiked the mountain under today's less-than-ideal conditions.

In the end, I'm kind of glad that visibility was so low because I couldn't look down while we scaled the side of boulders and while I followed trails that were approximately 1.5 feet wide, with nothing but a sheer cliff on the side. Had I been able to see the way down, I may not have been able to follow through on certain parts.

And I don't know if our guide was just being kind, but he told us it had been a while since he had clients who could make it up in two hours. Sometimes, he told us, it can take up to four hours, if his clients aren't in good shape.

This has been one of our better experiences thus far and I'm truly glad we were able to take this on today. I feel that I've definitely earned my dinner tonight!